The birth of a child is a happy occasion that inspires joy and celebration. So momentous is the day that the person born and those around him or her will commemorate it annually for a lifetime. But birth itself is an arduous, bloody and sometimes fatal event. No new life comes into being without terror, pain and struggle.

Any time you think Donald Trump cannot sink lower or further degrade the office he holds, he proves you wrong. His Tuesday press conference was the most historically ignorant, morally clueless and thoroughly malignant performance of any president in memory. He makes me long for the comparative nobility and wisdom of Richard Nixon.

During the presidential campaign, Donald Trump often told the story of the kind woman who found a half-frozen snake and took it in and nursed it back to health — only to be repaid with a cruel bite. What Republicans didn't know is that in this story, they're the woman and Trump is the reptile.

With his approval rating sinking, Trump has decided his problem is that he has too many allies.

Donald Trump is a businessman who has routinely hired foreign guest workers to staff his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, claiming it's impossible to find Americans to do the work. But his administration now wants to shut out foreigners who fill comparable jobs, which he now insists Americans would be happy to take. Consistency is not a Trump obsession.

President Donald Trump speaks during a Make America Great Again Rally at Big Sandy Superstore Arena in Huntington, West Virginia, August 3, 2017.

President Donald Trump speaks during a Make America Great Again Rally at Big Sandy Superstore Arena in Huntington, West Virginia, August 3, 2017.

(Saul Loeb / AFP/Getty Images)

When Huey Long was running for office in Louisiana, he told crowds that as a boy on Sunday mornings, he would hitch the family horse to a buggy to take his Catholic grandparents to Mass and then ferry his Baptist grandparents to church. When a surprised friend said, "I didn't know you had any Catholic grandparents," Long replied: "Don't be a damn fool. We didn't even have a horse."

The bill prevents U.S. companies from investing in many energy projects that are funded by Russian government interests. (Aug. 2, 2017) (Sign up for our free video newsletter here http://bit.ly/2n6VKPR)

The bill prevents U.S. companies from investing in many energy projects that are funded by Russian government interests. (Aug. 2, 2017) (Sign up for our free video newsletter here http://bit.ly/2n6VKPR)

Economic sanctions work better as a symbol than as a solution. The United States government imposed them on Cuba's Castro regime in 1960, and it's still in power. We imposed sanctions on Saddam Hussein, but had to invade Iraq to remove him. We imposed sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear program, which is humming along.